Well, I know we all have. But what I'm talking about is really cooking a goose. It occurs to me that I'm getting to be an old man and I ain't never ate no goose. I've been thinking about buying one at the grocery store, but I haven't a clue how to cook it. Is it greasy like duck? Is there anything special I have to do to make it edible, like soaking it in kerosene, or something? What about wild goose? There is only one place in Fla where goose hunting is legal, and it is only 15 miles from here. I could maybe go up there and blast one out of the sky, but I wouldn't know what to do with it. If any of you real woodsmen have any tips for me, I'll gladly reciprocate with some first-hand knowledge on eating crow.

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"I don't feel like an old man. I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him." Dick Cavett"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Domestic geese are really greasy. I mean REALLY greasy. You can bake them pretty much like a chicken. You can even use one of those roastin' bags. Wild geese aren't as greasy. In fact I don't think wild duck or wild geese are greasy at all. I always had to put slices of bacon on them to give them a little fat. Domestic goose is not my favorite and it's 'cause of the grease.

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Charlie"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

I've wondered the same thing about wild geese. At another thread, we've been talking about the good and bad of returning wildlife. The other day, we had 31 geese in our front yard and they stayed all day. You had to watch your step for a week afterwards.

Cut the goose in half length wise through the breast bone and spine. Liberally rub the bird inside and out with olive oil. Sprinkle with your favorite spices for fowl Place on a hot grill with a large load of coals, body cavity down drum sticks up. Roast for 20-30 minutes per pound. You may need to add coals once during roasting. Mighty good eating.

Since you asked.......You may or may not have seen a previous thread where I added my 2 cents worth about my refrigerator smoker. Never done a domestic goose but have done several Canadian geese. I pluck them so the skin holds the moisture. I use an electric hot plate for heat with hickory chips for smoke flavor. (any fruit wood works too) Cook at 200 degrees (or close) and allow an hour per pound. Peel the skin off and eat some mighty fine goose. Oh yeah, chop and onion, apple, celery, pepper or what ever ya got and throw in the cavity for a little extra flavor.Makin me hungry just thinkin about it. Wheres my long tom?

One of the most important things is to not overcook your goose. If you do, it will be as dry and tough as shoe leather.

Having geese around is a nice idea, until you actually have geese around. In areas that they congregate, you can't walk for the goose droppings and a herd of sheep won't graze a nice field of tender wheat as close. We are getting a lot of resident Canadian geese now, and it doesn't take too long for them to wear out a welcome.

Bizidizie, I always thought chicken tasted like snake. Now I wonder if cats taste like snake too.

Rochester, Minnesota has a small lake (actually 'cause of a dammed up river) in the city that never freezes 'cause the Power Company dumps it cooling water into it. So the Canadian Geese stop there on there way south and some stay all winter. So.......in the Fall, there will be over 30,000 geese in that small area. Some of the geese stay all winter, so there is always at least over 20,000 geese there until they return to Canada in the Spring. It's against the law to get one of those geese in the city and there are some pretty good stories of those people that got caught trying.

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Charlie"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

Oh, yeah, I forgot one thing. Before you rub the bird down with olive oil, skin it. No need to take the time to pluck it. Just skin it out and cover with olive oil and spices before grilling it. Haytrader has a good idea with the refer smoker thing but if all ya got is a grill you can still have some mighty fine eatin. The meat will be plenty juicy if you pay attention.

biziedizie

Charlie we had a Chinese restaurant in town that was serving cat for all it's chicken dishes. It really does taste like chicken. The place was shut down after the food inspector caught wind of what was going down. From what I understand they were getting the cats from the S.P.C.A and serving them up for dinner to save money. I think it would be a good way of getting rid of all the un-wanted pets out there.

bizie,My sons would fish all night under the bridge on the Trout River in Jax. They came home excited one morning. "Daddy, Daddy, That new Cambodian resturant on the river has a pen with dogs in it out back and they are different dogs every night."

On this goose plukin thing.Did ya scald em first? If ya scald em the feathers will come off easy.We do wild turkey the same way. We have a 1/2 of a 55 gal. barrel we sit on some rocks and put old hedge fence posts under and get the propane weed burner going. Takes a while to heat the water but really knocks what ever holds the feathers.You will know when the water is hot enough cause if it's not, the feathers won't come off easy. Oh, and cinnamon schnapps seems to help the water heat faster.

When I came home from hunting and was skinning out the ducks and geese in my garage, the neighbor kids would always gather around. I use to press hard on the ducks breasts and make them quack for the kids. They thought that was neat to see a dead duck quack. Then, when my son was in 2nd grade, I cut off a goose foot and showed him how he could pull one tendon and the web foot would open and if he pulled another, the foot would close. Then I sent him to school with it to show the class during show and tell. My wife taught at the same school and the teacher came to her and said, "You would not believe what your husband had your son do at show and tell!" Then 4 years later, when my daughter was in 2nd grade, I sent her to school with a duck foot for show and tell. The teacher said to Donna, "Your husband has done it again!" That was fun!

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Charlie"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

When I was about 5, they had a 4-H picinic on our place (where I showed Whitepe how I could still swing out over the swimming hole on a rope). A frog came up from the river to see what was taking place and one of the big boys showed us little boys how that frog could smoke a cigarette.

It's nice that there are old guys like Charlie to show us kids the wonders of nature

Well Noble, when raw, the skin is sorta like a plucked chicken skin but the raw meat is red. Like Jeff, I plucked one goose once and decided that skinning was the way to go. I know one thing I learned. You are wasting your shot to shoot at a passing goose and shoot at his body. They have 14,000,250,000,783 feathers on their breasts and shot won't penetrate. Don't question how I know......I just do!

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Charlie"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"